Microsoft may be strugglinig in its efforts to challenge the dominance of Apple and Android in the smartphone arena, but the quality and performance of Nokia's Lumia smartphones is such that the company has experienced a serious upturn in customer satisfaction rates since the handsets were
launched in November 2012.

The Windows Phone 8 operating system and mobile platform may have come in for more than its fair share of criticism over recent months, not least form Microsoft's own co-founder, Bill Gates, who admitted earlier this week that he wasn't satisfied with the company's mobile strategy, but that doesn't mean that the company's handset partners aren't producing high-quality smartphones. In particular, Nokia has seen its overall customer satisfaction rankings rocket in the UK since it launched its Windows Phone 8 handsets, the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 in November 2012.

According to the latest figures from YouGov, in December 2012, 42 percent of Nokia smartphone owners said that they would buy another phone from the company based on their experience of their current handset. In September 2012, only 30 percent said that they would buy another Nokia handset.

Of the results, based on a survey of over 4,100 UK mobile phone users aged 18 and over, Russell Feldman, associate director at YouGov said: "Nokia has finally turned a corner. By increasing the number of Lumias in its base it has given their customers something worth coming back to. It is now seen by its consumers as a quality smartphone brand. While they are still a fair distance behind Apple and Samsung in terms of market share and loyalty, the fact they have changed consumer perception among their customers puts them in a solid position as the smartphone war intensifies."

Since its launch the Lumia range of handsets has won universal praise; the only complaint from reviewers has been that at 185g, it is much heavier than the Samsung Galaxy SIII (133g) or the iPhone 5 (112g). However, this extra weight hasn't been too much of a burden for sales. YouGov's figures also show that over the past 12 months the percentage of Nokia customers in the UK with a Windows Phone handset has jumped from 1 to 40 percent.

Nokia is widely expected to launch a new flagship Windows Phone handset, codenamed the Eos, at the upcoming Mobile World Congress on February 25. It is expected to feature an aluminum shell and a 41-megapixel image sensor for superior photography performance.